Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Chapter 598: Luvanka's past (1)

It was almost like Allen had forced Luvanka into becoming his summon.

Allen also had to help Shea with her trials, and complete Cecile's quest.

He did not know how much Luvanka really wanted to be a summon, but he had coerced him into becoming his Beast S summon.

He had obtained Kuwatoro and Graham by properly working for them first, but he had gotten impatient with Luvanka.

'I chose to become a summon of my own will. It was my choice, and I don't regret it.'

Luvanka stepped forward, answering to Giran.

'Have you forgotten how the divine realm took you in when you were young? Have you forgotten how Lord Garm granted you power!!'

'I haven't forgotten. But I also have no interest in becoming a Mythical Beast and taking Albahar's place.'

'Silence!!'

(He's attacking?!)

Giran stood up and jumped down at Luvanka, and through their Shared vision Allen was able to see Giran leaping down at Luvanka. He also used his thoughts to order Luvanka to dodge, but Luvanka stood still.

Then Giran's fangs were revealed in slow motion.

(Get out of the way already!!)

'...'

Luvanka remained still, deaf to Allen's orders, which had never happened with summons before.

There was a low thud, and then Luvanka's head spun freely in the air.

Giran passed by Allen's group, then stopped and turned around.

Only then did they understand that Luvanka had died, as his headless body turned to light.

(Huh? What's this?)

Allen was about to raise his voice in shock when something like a stream of thoughts entered his mind.

＊＊＊

Allen felt like Luvanka's fading soul was flowing into his mind, like regrets or confessions that could not be put into words.

(Where am I? Am I walking somewhere?)

He felt like his gaze was higher up than usual, swaying slightly as if he was walking.

Looking down he saw a muscular chest with leather armor, and legs shifting across the ground.

He seemed to be in a forest, as his footsteps were muted by dead leaves.

The legs were covered in fur, and so he understood that he was in Luvanka's body.

This was not the Paradise of Primordial Beasts, and judging from Luvanka's size, Allen understood this was something that happened before he became a Sacred Beast.

(So these are Luvanka's past memories.)

Allen could not move or talk as Luvanka, and it was more like a replay of his memories.

This had never happened before, but this was probably similar to how summons could access Allen's memories, except this time he was the one seeing the memories.

As Allen thought about all that, the forest began to open up and some buildings became visible.

(Oh? A village?)

There were countless tree logs pointed at Luvanka, with their ends sharpened like pencils.

That was a palisade, followed by a 10 meter deep moat before a many meters tall fence.

It was a common sight in this world, a way to fend off monsters from villages.

As Luvanka got closer, two beastman gatekeepers pointed their spears at him.

"Ohh! You're back, Val!!"

It seemed like Luvanka was called Val when he was still a beastman.

"You had us worried, taking more than 3 days to return!!"

"Sorry, but it took a while to hunt this."

"Ohh! Those horns!! Is that an Ogre King…"

"I want to see too!"

"Okay okay, don't get so jumpy now."

Luvanka sighed and unloaded a horn that was more than 2 meters long to show the guards.

It looked like an overgrown bamboo shoot, but was the horn of an Ogre King, which looked like a unicorn's horn. It had been torn from its root, as some dry blood still clung to it.

"You really know how to prove you're the strongest, Val."

"You won't gain anything from flattering me, I still have to talk to the chief."

Val did not let the praise get to his head, as he picked up the horn and walked into the village.

There was a long street past the gate, which led to the central square, and the chief's mansion.

"It's Val!"

"Val has returned!"

"Enough kids, it's almost lunch time. you should go back home."

"Okayyy."

"Val! Tell us how you hunted that monster later!"

"Sure, but later."

The children of the village celebrated his return like he was a hero.

Luvanka simply told the children to go back home, and then continued walking.

When he reached the mansion, he asked a servant about the chief and was showed inside.

(Oh? There's already 2 horns here. Hm? So he just hunted a 3rd one?)

Past the door there was an elderly beastman, but Luvanka first looked at the wall, where two Ogre King horns were hanging. Luvanka sighed looking at them.

"Ohh! You're back!! That horn…so you got another one. But why the long face? Our hero Val has returned!! This merits a banquet!!"

The chief, an elderly mouse beastman, could see everything that happened from Luvanka's face. But he decided a celebration should happen first, and ordered for food to be brought.

"My apologies."

"What for? Eat as much as you want."

Luvanka was using both his hands to stuff his cheeks with food, as if he had not eaten for days.

(He only has 1 set of arms here. I guess he was like 30 when this happened?)

Allen tried to guess Luvanka's age from his voice and mannerisms.

Meanwhile the chief took the horn Luvanka brought, cleaned the blood from it, and hung it together with the others.

Then he silently sat in front of Luvanka, who was eating as fast as he could.

"So what do you think? Are the ogres around the village finally gone now?"

"...I wouldn't count on that."

"What do you mean?"

Luvanka stopped eating to reply to the chief. There had been many ogres appearing nearby.

Ogres were at least B Rank monsters, who built villages together and knew how to fight properly, making them a higher threat than D Rank goblins or C Rank orcs.

The Ogre Kings leading their villages were A Rank monsters.

(I remember destroying an ogre village was the graduation exam in the Academy. But I didn't have to do that since the war started.)

Luvanka had destroyed 2 ogre villages to protect his village, and had defeated a third one more during the last 3 days.

"...I got that horn in the same place where I destroyed an ogre village not too long ago."

"What?!"

"While I was searching for other ogre villages, an Ogre King settled in that old spot."

"Then…does that mean…"

"There's an Ogre Emperor somewhere nearby, with an army of Ogre Kings."

Ogres usually never moved their villages, unless they ran out of food in a region.

But there was one more reason why they would move a village.

That was if a higher ranking Ogre Emperor told them to.

Ogre Emperors were S Rank monsters, and a single one was already incredibly powerful, but they also had armies of thousands of ogres, so an Ogre Emperor appearing usually signaled the demise of an entire country.

"That's terrible news, I'll have to let the feudal lord know."

"I don't think the feudal lord will be able to do much either. We need the king's army."

"R-right. I'll send out a messenger tomorrow. Val, you're this village's hero. We might still be saved thanks to you."

That concluded his meeting with the chief, so Luvanka stood up and went to his own house.

(Oh, that was a time-skip.)

Allen felt like he had been teleported ahead in time, and now stood in Luvanka's house.

It seemed like there was some distance between the chief's mansion and Luvanka's house, so his memory fast forwarded the trip.

"Dad!!"

"Papa came back!!"

A gorilla beastman boy who was around 10 years old, and a gorilla beastman girl who was around 5 years old had been playing in the house, but ran out when they noticed Luvanka was back.

"Oh? You're already back? Welcome home."

"Mhm."

A gorilla beastman woman, likely Luvanka's wife, also opened the door and came out.

The two children circled around Luvanka, their father who they had not seen in days.

Then there was another time skip, this time to the night.

Considering the children's reaction, their dinner was a better meal than they usually ate.

"Dad, this meat is really good!!"

"It's tastyy!!"

The children were happily eating the meat of the giant bird Luvanka had also hunted while he was away.

"Are you alright? Is something wrong?"

"It's not exactly that."

"What happened?"

"It's just that we might have to leave the village."

"Really?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that this might not be the best place."

"It's fine, I'll go anywhere as long as I'm with you."

"I know."

The children who had been eating so heartily soon fell silent.

They had eaten so much that they just fell asleep.

Luvanka picked the two children up and carried them to their room.

At the same time, Allen felt something warm flowing into his mind.

It was like a strong torrent of emotion.

(Is this what he's feeling? Or his regret?)

It felt like Luvanka's heart rate was going up as he looked at his children, and Allen soon found out why.

That night, while everyone including Luvanka was sleeping, a shrill cry pierced through the silence.

Soon after, the village's alarm bell began to ring loudly.

"Ogres are attacking! There's a whole army of them!!!"

Luvanka also woke up from all the shouts and noise.

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